Queenie's lifetime wish: Three
centuries

by Elmo Leonard - Daily News 23 Jan 2000

Queenie Solomonsz, 100 years old on 24
November, 1999, makes sure granddaughter Eloise Koelmeyer understands
what it is all about.

When the sun shone in Canberra, Australia, heralding the
dawn of the second millennium, Sri Lankan Queenie Solomonsz, domiciled in
Australia, realised her life's ambition of seeing the daylight of three
centuries. Queenie Solomonsz was born in Colombo Sri Lanka on November 25, 1899.
She immigrated to Australia with her husband in 1969 to join her daughter, who
had immigrated two years earlier. Queenie is the eldest of five children of her
family, who have all departed, having lived long lives. Up to the mid 1980's
Queenie visited Sri Lanka, traveling alone, and living with her relations here.

Having changed her residence after she celebrated her
100th birthday in Canberra on November 25, last year, the writer who is a nephew
of the centurion, has lost communication with her, since. The writer lived with
the old lady in Sri Lanka, and much of what is written is from memory, and from
an article of November 26, 1999, which appeared in The Canberra Times.

Her secret of long life are the Christian acts of faith
and hope, she clung to, to live to be 100 years. She does not want to live much
longer; just to be 101.

A devout Catholic, the day before her 100th birthday,
Queenie had prayed all night that she would live to be 100.

She received a certificate from the Pope for reaching 100
at a Mass held in her honour. A tea party was also held on her birthday, at the
Villaggio Sant'Antonio Hostel where she lived with people from a variety of
different cultures.

Sinking of Titanic

Queenie remembers many things, the sinking of the Titanic,
the First and Second World Wars, the English governors of pre-independent Sri
Lanka, the introduction of the car to Ceylon. Her husband was a guard in the
Ceylon Government Railway, and they were posted to different parts of Sri Lanka.
Queenie remembers the improvement of the railway. She also remembers the
different towns of Sri Lanka as they were in the early part of the 20th Century.
She remembers the island's hill country, the tea plantations and towns. Most
important, she remembers the people of Sri Lanka, the different races, their
culture, creed, and some of the changes which took place. It is a pity that a
cultural anthropologist did not record her, while she was in Sri Lanka. Her
attitude and the way she speaks Sinhala is unchanged from what the middle class
of the early part of the 20th century spoke. Not only was her language
unchanged, but her cultural outlook of Sri Lankans, too. Just before she
immigrated to Australia in 1969, she identified a little boy by his race, and
inquired of him why he spoke in a tongue which did not match his race. Now, in
Australia, she does not call herself a Sri Lankan, but an Australian passport
holder, according to a nephew.

Her father was Arthur White, who worked as a chief clerk
in the office of the Post Master General. He lived a long life. Queenie was the
eldest of her father's second marriage. She had an older step sister, Gladys,
who has also departed.

Her mother was Mary Brigette Livera, a past student of
Good Shepherd Convent, Kotahena, and a housewife after marriage. Brigette or
Biddie, also died in old age, in the year 1950.

Education

Queenie attended St Anthony's Convent, Dematagoda, until
she was fifteen. She spoke very good English, and we have to conclude that she
was good at her studies, at a time when girls did not bother to count
educational qualifications. Leaving school, Queenie became a Hello Girl, at the
Colombo telephone exchange.

In 1923 she married Christian Earnest Solomonsz
(Christie). Christie was a Presbyterian (Dutch Reformed Church) while Queenie is
a Catholic. In those days marriage between Catholics and Protestants hardly
happened. The Catholic Church was so strict, it forbade even the members of her
family attending her wedding. To atone for the `sin' of marrying a non-Catholic,
the penalty was public penance. Queenie, however, kept her peace with The Holy
Mother the Church.

Queenie, had a pew at All Saints Church, marked Mrs C. E.
Solomonsz.

Christie was a workaholic. He mopped his house twice every
day. His garden did not see an extra blade of grass. Every brass button of
Railway guard Christie Solomonsz shone as brightly as it possibly could.
Christie was very punctual at work. He could work night after night, sleep only
a few hours, and get back to answer another call of duty. In recognition of his
services, when Queen Elizabeth visited Sri Lanka in 1954, Christie was in charge
of four guards on the train, and was awarded a medallion by the Queen.

Christie was a lover of bananas or plantains, and every
day took home a bunch. Perhaps, this practice lead to the long healthy life of
Christie and Queenie.

Children

They had two children. The elder was a boy. Apparently, he
did not live long. Their daughter Carmen, Philomine to some, studied at All
Saints College, Colombo 8, and later at Good Shepherd Convent, Kotahena.

The Solomonsz family lived many years at 10, Railway
Bungalow, Mount Mary, Colombo. After Christie retired from the railway, they
moved over to 29, Rodney Street, Colombo, the house being under the influence of
poltergeists at the time. Then, the Solomonsz family built a house at 15
Galpotta Road, Nawala.

Christie continued to work after retirement, cashing
cheques at the Maradana Railway Station, and Queenie helped him with his
accounts, at the end of the day. When Christie's money was taken by a snatch
thief, the story was recorded in the Evening Observer.

Carmen was a secretary, who worked at Radio Ceylon, and
later at the Ministry of Nationalised Services. She married Fredrick Koelmeyer
in Sri Lanka. They had two sons when they moved to Australia.

Queenie and Christie followed two years later. They lived
in their own flat in Ainslie, until 1976, when Christie at the age of 82, was
found dead of a heart attack, falling short of entering his gate.

Not long after that, Queenie moved with Carmen and her
husband to Darwin, northern Australia, and Queenie went with them to look after
the children. After two years they returned to Canberra and Queenie lived with
them until she came to Villaggio, Canberra in 1994.

Queenie has four grand children, Johann, Kirk, Christopher
and Eloise, and three great grand-children, Jessica, Kate and Rebecca.

Queenie always did her own cooking. She is an expert in
the Sri Lankan culinary art, with her own innovations. Her curries are dry, and
the gravy concentrated; the best cook of Sri Lankan food, the writer has known.
Queenie is also interested in crochet which she still does.

Queenie loves going to mass and reading her prayer book
every day. She still writes her own letters and cards.